1. Field of Invention
Embodiments exemplarily described herein relate generally to accessing information based upon a user's geographic location.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
At the present time a number of emerging technologies have been developed to allow users to link informational content with geographic locations. Some early embodiments of such systems are described in the paper by Spohrer entitled Information in Places and published in IBM Systems Journal, vol. 38, No. 4, 1999 (p. 602-628) which is hereby incorporated by reference.
A number of other systems have been developed for accessing spatially associated information, the information being accessed based upon the then current location of a portable computing system as determined by one or more Global Positioning System (GPS) sensor local to a computing system. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,122,520 entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OBTAINING AND USING LOCATION SPECIFIC INFORMATION and hereby incorporated by reference, describes a system that uses Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS), in combination with a distributed network, to access location related information based upon GPS coordinates. In addition U.S. Pat. No. 6,819,267 entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROXIMITY BOOKMARKS USING GPS AND PERVASIVE COMPUTING and hereby incorporated by reference, also describes a system for accessing location related information using GPS coordinates. In addition U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0032528 entitled GEOGRAPHICAL WEB BROWSER, METHODS, APPARATUS AND SYSTEMS and hereby incorporated by reference, also describes a system for accessing location related information using GPS coordinates.
A problem with such prior art systems is that simply tagging information by location by itself does not support the unique needs of users who want to leave personal reminders to themselves that trigger only upon entering and/or exiting a particular area that is relationally associated with the reminder. For example, simply tagging information by location does not address the fact that a user may wish to author a reminder and specifically assign the triggering of that reminder to the act of entering a defined physical area. Similarly, simply tagging information by location does not address the fact that a user may wish to author a reminder and specifically assign the triggering of that reminder to the act of entering a defined physical area and resetting the reminder such that it will not trigger again until the user has exited the defined area and then entered again. Similarly, simply tagging information by location does not address the fact that a user may wish to author a reminder and specifically assign the triggering of that reminder to the act of exiting a defined physical area. Similarly, simply tagging information by location does not address the fact that a user may wish to author a reminder and specifically assign the triggering of that reminder to both the acts of entering and exiting a defined physical area. Also, simply tagging information by location does not address the fact that a user may wish to leave a reminder that is only accessible by himself or herself and not accessible by other users. Also, simply tagging information by location does not address the fact that a user may wish to leave a reminder that will alert him or her only once upon entering a particular area. Also, simply tagging information by location does not address the fact that user may wish to have unique reminder options upon being presented to him or her upon the automatic triggering of a reminder. For example, a user may wish to be provided with the option of terminating the reminder upon automatic display such that it will be deleted and not trigger again. The user may also wish to be provided with the option of editing the reminder upon automatic display such that items can be added, removed, and/or changed. The user may also wish to be provided with the option of deferring the reminder such that it will trigger again after a defined amount of time if the user remains within the associated physical area. The user may also wish to be provided with the option of requesting a last chance with respect to the reminder such that it will automatically trigger again just as the user leaves the defined area and thereby give him or her a last chance to act on the reminder before leaving the area. Also, simply tagging information by location does not address the fact that a user may wish to leave a reminder that is relationally associated with a particular selected establishment or type of establishment.
It was a recognition of these and other shortcomings of the prior art that provided the impetus for the embodiments discussed herein below.